Bill Dixon wins national honours

Albion Park's multiple premiership winning harness racing trainer - Bill Dixon has been awarded the prestigious J.D Watts 2010/2011 Australian Leading Trainer Award. Dixon has won the award for the past three years and with his achievements of the season just past, was awarded his fourth consecutive title.

Nationally, Dixon's tally for the season consisted of 299 victories.

For the past several seasons Bill Dixon has featured predominantly in the Albion Park premiership. He and his main rival, John McCarthy have a great battle down to the wire in the premiership each year, this last season alone Bill trained 71 winners to John's 68, which cemented the 2010-2011 title to Dixon.

Saturday night programs on the Albion Park surface that do not include a victorious runner from the Dixon stable are extremely uncommon. Last season Bill and his son Grant regularly had multiple runners in each race, many of which were in the top select few in each event's betting market.

Multiple winners on the metropolitan programs at Albion Park were regular with the Bill and Grant combination last season. Commonly the stable took home a training double and occasionally recorded trebles, stamping in that Dixon factor.

Now, in season 2011/2012, Dixon has decided to take a back seat approach to training. His son Grant has now taken over the reins as head trainer to prepare the large team based at Tamborine.

The J.D Watts Award honours Australia's leading trainer (and driver) each season. J.D (Jack) Watts, one of Australia's premier trainers in years gone by, trained winners in all states of Australia over a fifty year period which included victories with Caduceus.

Dixon, in the twilight of his career, has made it through the hard yards to the top.

In response to this achievement, Dixon said:

"I have enjoyed the thrill of being the National leading trainer over the past four years and this year was exceptional with the number of winners we had. Winning this or any other title is not something you concern yourself with during the weeks of racing.

"You are just happy that your horses are going well, your owners have the joy of winning and you know that you're doing something right, which keeps a lot of people happy. Albion Park is the place I like to be every Saturday night.

"Even as it is now it still has the racing feeling about it. Hopefully in the not too distant future it will have some of its glory back. Let us all get behind this great industry".

The Albion Park Harness Racing Club would like to congratulate Bill on his achievements, not only in receiving his fourth J.D Watts Award, but also on his remarkable career in Harness Racing.